Mr Morrison said the government was doing everything it could to maintain Australia's economy.

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Businesses called to go into 'hibernation'

by Ally Foster

27th Mar 2020 1:54 PM

The PM said businesses will go into "hibernation" in a bid to make sure they come back on the other side of the virus.

"We want these businesses to effectively go into a hibernation, which means on the other side, the employees come back, the opportunities come back, the economy comes back," he said.

"This will underpin our strategy as we go to the third tranche of our economic plan, and that will include support by states and territories on managing the very difficult issue of commercial tenancies and also dealing ultimately with residential tenancies as well."

Mr Morrison said the government was doing everything it could to maintain Australia's economy.

He said asking Australian businesses to hibernate was an "innovative" approach under these circumstances.

"We will have more to say about this, but I discussed with the premiers and - it with the premiers and chief ministers today," he said.

"The idea is simple - there are businesses which will have to close their doors. They will have to keep them closed either because we have made it necessary for them to do so, or simply there is just not the business to keep their doors open.

"We want those businesses to start again. And we do not want over the course of the next six months or as long as it takes, for those businesses to be so saddled by debt, so saddled by rental payments, so saddled by other liabilities that they will not be able to start again on the other side."